The age old debate between PC and console gamers as to which platform is superior may have some more information to add to the fire with an unexpected surprise. Visual Capitalist recently published an infographic depicting the last 50 years of video game revenue, including all potential platforms.
Starting in the year 1970, we see the initial dominance of the arcade slowly lose ground to the newly launched consoles of the era. As time marches on, the gaming PC starts to supersede both the arcade and the home console as the larger source of revenue. The arcade almost goes the way of the dodo bird, as we enter into the modern era.
The big surprise here is how incredibly prolific mobile gaming has become, in both adoption rates and in brute-forcing a serious amount of revenue out of the industry.
With an incredible $101 billion US dollars in revenue in 2022, mobile gaming platforms have dwarfed the $45 billion revenue of the PC. The console market is holding steadfast at $30 billion, no doubt being cannibalized by both mobile and PC temptations. The truth of the matter is that in the modern gaming age, there exists an abundance of choice available to gamers that were never possible in the past.
One can argue that PC games can often be more expensive on average than most games on console or mobile, such as the potentially pricey upcoming GTA 6 from Rockstar Games. In reality, though, frequent sales on Steam the Epic Games Store debunk that theory.
However, there are a myriad of ways to generate revenue, ranging from loot packs and online subscriptions, to special editions, which undoubtedly skew the results here. PC gamers are used to the onslaught on their wallets over the years.
Mobile gaming is often cheaper by comparison, given its more stripped down nature and having to run on less capable hardware. This makes the $101 billion dollar amount even more impressive, showcasing the large user base of consumers gaming on mobile platforms. Give credit to in-game purchases, no doubt.
PC gaming may be the best graphically, but mobile gaming is the most popular
While gamers will swoon at the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs for the best experience, one can't ignore cost as a factor. Likewise, mobility and being able to play on phones, handhelds, and other mobile hardware means that gamers have much more flexibility on how they enjoy their gaming experience.
Of some interest is the smaller $5 billion revenue of the virtual reality and augmented reality gaming markets. With Apple and Meta making huge strides towards developing better VR and AR hardware, this is certainly a sector of the market to watch out for. Will the rise of VR gaming eventually replace mobile, PC, or console gaming in any significant numbers? That question will only be answered with time, and with compelling enough hardware that gamers actually want to use.
